1963 Quinta do Noval Porto Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto (7/9/2011)
At the end of a day of eating too much grilled meat and drinking too much really good regular wine at the Ghi-man's house. This fit with the Quinta do Noval house style, at least from the 1960s through at least the late 1980s. Lighter than a top flight vintage Port. One guy suggested that it was trying to be a tawny but wasn't doing a very good job of it. At first, just after a pop and pour, it was very spirity and obviously needed time to air out. After about 40 minutes with some occasional vigorous swirling and the addition of more from a decanter which had been slightly chilled due to the heat, the spirity nose and palate went away and were replaced by a mixture of caramel and roasted nuts with a bit of undefined citrus. Maybe a tiny bit of light vanilla or a similar flavor that was hard to grab onto. The overall flavor was on the light side and the color was a translucent light brown caramel. There was some acidity to balance the sweetness and the mouth feel had none of the syrupy component that you get with a newer, high end Port. This was pleasant and enjoyable but did not have a WOW factor. Would I buy it? Not for the $150+ ticket that seems to be the lowest price on Winesearcher. I liked the 1995 Vargellas much more - with its classic Port flavors - and that barely cost me $30 at auction. (88 pts.)
By the way - what's up with the automatic posting from Cellartracker. I had to post this the old fashioned way - cut and paste.
![[shrug.gif]](./images/smilies/shrug.gif "Huh?"){kind=small}